Miles Austin's Preseason is Probably Over

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If the third receiver job is really still up for grabs, the candidates are going to get plenty of chances to impress the Cowboys coaches.

Miles Austin reaggravated his hamstring injury at practice earlier this week, which means that there's not much chance he'll see the field again before the season opener against the Jets. Risking further injury by playing him this weekend would make no sense and starters aren't going to be on the field for the final preseason game next week.

So expect to see a lot of Kevin Ogletree, Dwayne Harris and Jesse Holley on your screens. That might not make for fireworks on the scoreboard, but it isn't a bad thing for the Cowboys to see as much of these players as possible in the next two weeks.

Austin is a known commodity and the refinement Dez Bryant needs isn't going to come during preseason games. Feeding the other receivers as much as possible and seeing what they can handle will help the team much more than having Austin put his regular season at risk by fighting to come back from the kind of injury that can linger without being given ample time to rest.

There's still plenty for Austin to do even without stepping on the field. He can watch video on Darrelle Revis in what will likely be a futile effort to find a flaw in his game. He can help out the younger receivers during practices so that they can either benefit from the attention paid to Austin or force defenses to ease off on him by making plays down the field. He can even think wistful thoughts about what might have been with Kim Kardashian, although that seems like the least productive option on the list.

Really, though, he should just concentrate on getting better. The most important thing for the Cowboys and for Austin is to make sure that this injury doesn't become a nagging issue through the early part of the season. The Cowboys need to hit the ground running and that means Austin shouldn't be running at all.